flash point
by justjoy
Summary: "Damn it," Saguru mutters under his breath, when the edge of his paper catches fire for the third time today. [for the prompt: "You are a pyrokinetic who tends to accidentally set things on fire when stressed. And today, you're having a very bad day."]
1. flash point

for the prompt: "You are a pyrokinetic who tends to accidentally set things on fire when stressed. And today, you're having a very bad day."

* * *

" _Damn_ it," Saguru mutters under his breath, when the edge of his paper catches fire for the third time today.

Acrid tendrils of smoke curl out from where his fingers meet the paper, and he forces himself to take several deep breaths (in _why was this happening_ , out _he ought've mastered it completely by now_ , in _just stop already_ ) until the heat flickers and dies out again – which is when the lunch bell rings, and Saguru would've called it divine intervention if he'd been inclined to be religious in the least.

He's just about to stand and leave (to anywhere, really, Saguru doesn't usually have a problem with confined spaces but the classroom feels excruciatingly stifling today) when a voice calls out from behind him.

"Oi, Hakuba," says Kuroba, and Saguru watches somewhat warily as his classmate walks over to his desk. Quite contrary to any of Saguru's expectations though, Kuroba only looks at him for a moment, before nodding towards the desk. "You want to talk about it?"

Or – not quite the desk, Saguru realises, looking down at the slightly reddened patches on his hands. His pyrokinesis doesn't hurt himself, usually, but today had been a bad day on all fronts, to put it mildly. Saguru can't help but grimace. "That obvious, huh?"

"Unless you're blind. Or deaf. _And_ lack a sense of smell, I guess," Kuroba adds after a moment's consideration. "So, like I said – wanna talk?"

Saguru's first instinct is to decline politely, but he forces himself to consider it seriously. He hasn't had a power lapse this bad in a long time (three years, eight months, and four days, to put it precisely), after all. But...

"Thank you for the offer, but I think I'll pass," Saguru says eventually. "I don't think talking will help in this situation, honestly speaking."

Kuroba shrugs, his expression nonchalant. "Okay, whatever you say. Offer's still open, though."

Then he walks off, and Saguru is _certain_ that's the end of it, when –

A small jar lands on his desk with a metallic _clink_ , and Saguru looks from it to Kuroba's oddly unexpressive face, suddenly feeling like there was a whole part to the conversation that he'd missed. "I'm sorry, what – ?"

"Burn cream," Kuroba says, interrupting the question – not that Saguru quite knew what he'd been intending to ask, anyway. "Or at least my version of it, but it should help with your hands."

"I – " Saguru blinks in surprise, and almost wonders if he heard that wrong. "That sounds useful. Thank you, Kuroba-kun."

"Don't mention it," comes the answer, almost flippantly, and Saguru belatedly realises that Kuroba is already halfway to the classroom door. "Literally."

He's still seated at his desk a few minutes later – all thoughts of leaving the classroom gone from his mind – when Aoko walks over and notices the jar on his desk. "Oh, is that from Kaito? It's really effective, I know he uses it during his own practice."

"Yes, Kuroba-kun gave it to me." And speaking of whom – Saguru turns to his other classmate, and wonders if he looks half as mystified as he feels. "Why would he do that?"

He almost expects her not to answer, but instead Aoko leans over to turn the chair in front of his around and sit down, looking pensive.

It's a few moments before she speaks, and in that time Saguru has already applied a thin layer of the cream on the base of his fingers, where the outline of the paper from earlier is still smarting ever so slightly – and Aoko is right, it _does_ work wonders.

"Kaito had quite a lot of trouble controlling his powers when he was younger, you see. Especially after his dad..." Aoko's voice trails off – her words are soft enough that it doesn't carry, though the classroom is almost empty anyway. "Anyway, it wasn't until the middle school that he really got a handle on it. So he knows what it feels like, I guess."

Saguru listens with a growing sense of disbelief, because he's _seen_ Kuroba in ability training, and he – or, to borrow a turn of phrase, anyone with a functional set of senses who happens to be in the elemental manipulation section of the class – can see that Kuroba's control of air is basically perfect. And Saguru has been to some of the finest ability training institutions both back home and in Japan, so he knows what he's talking about.

 _Then_ Aoko adds, "So, do you want to talk about it, Hakuba-kun?"

And apparently Saguru is more tired than he thought, because the retort slips out before he can stop it. "Are you and Kuroba-kun _ganging up_ on me?"

Aoko giggles. "Not at all, Hakuba-kun, you would definitely have noticed if Kaito and Aoko were working together on something like that!"

Which is... true, if not quite an answer he was expecting, and Saguru is suddenly and forcibly reminded of what he'd heard and dismissed as a myth back when he'd first transferred into Ekoda High – that a previous math teacher for this class had resigned in a fit of terror after she claimed that she was being haunted at school by some particularly persistent ghosts.

He looks again at Aoko, who still has the slightest glint of mischief in her eyes, and decides that (a) he really _doesn't_ want to know, and (b) Aoko would've gotten involved _only_ if the teacher had been legitimately terrible in her own right. Probably.

School, Saguru thinks with a sigh, had never been quite this complicated in London. "It's really not something pleasant to talk about, Aoko-kun. I was just assigned to help Division One with their caseload this week, and... well, it's been a while since I've encountered any murder cases, I suppose."

That isn't the whole story, of course – Saguru hasn't really worked on many homicides since coming to Japan, that much was true, but he'd handled them quite regularly before, enough so that he knows a murder alone isn't enough to trigger something like this. But one of the cases had been worse than the others, and –

A slight crackle catches his attention, but before the flame can escape beyond Saguru's clenched fingers Aoko conjures a little disc of water that extinguishes it with a faint sizzle before vanishing without a trace.

"Thank you, Aoko-kun," Saguru says, then adds, "Your control is very impressive as well, you know."

"Eh? Aoko's control?" She laughs, shaking her head. "Not really, Aoko is just lucky to have an easier element than Kaito or Hakuba-kun! Water has a much more physical form than fire or air, after all."

Saguru recalls several of the more disastrous hydrokinesis attempts that he'd seen with a wince. "I beg to differ, Aoko-kun. A former classmate of mine once nearly brought down a tsunami upon our heads. He had been trying to create a whirlpool, I believe."

"That sounds like he lost control of the direction vectors," she replies. "But as long as you're careful with those, water can be quite predictable. Aoko doesn't even need to worry about factors like viscosity and composition all that much, unlike Kaito."

Before Saguru can argue the point any further, though, Aoko stands up and extends a hand to him. "Oh, do you want to go to the rooftop and watch Kaito practice, Hakuba-kun?"

He raises an eyebrow skeptically. "Practice? On what?"

"On himself, of course!" Aoko says, before elaborating at Saguru's presumably confused expression. "He mentioned something about working out the buoyancy and lift forces on himself, but Kaito's never liked sharing his ideas before he's figured out how to make them work."

Saguru puts two and two together, and comes up with a short-circuited brain and the otherwise unlikely hypothesis that Kuroba is apparently trying to make himself _fly_ , which is –

He's halfway to his feet before he realises the obvious contradiction. "Hang on, doesn't that mean he _won't_ want us there watching?"

"That's why we're going to be spying on him instead!" Aoko answers cheerfully, fishing out her handphone from her school satchel. "Besides, Aoko already promised to send Chikage-san a video if Kaito actually makes it work, so we definitely have a reason to be there – "

As Saguru lets himself be tugged along in the wake of Aoko's excitement, he thinks about how school had never been quite _this_ interesting in London, either – and really, he wouldn't trade it for the world.

* * *

 **END**

* * *

 _...no, I don't know how this happened either? honest. the brain saw that prompt and went, hey, that sounds like a certain Osaka loudmouth – oh no wait! why not let's make our own lives difficult and pick the one character who's the exact opposite! it'll be fun!_

 _...so yeah, that happened. powers assigned at semi-random, Kaito gets air because that would be pretty neat as Kid (what with all the acrobatics and gliders and whatnot), Aoko gets water because why not (it's a lot harder than she makes it sound obvs). not sure where Akako would be in this universe? also someone really needs to have Layla's power from Sky High_ _that scene was really awesome okay hush now_


	2. outtakes

...okay, so because writing in Saguru's POV is apparently a thing I like to do now or something (he is so Done with everything but mostly with Kaito), have another thousand (?!) vaguely crack-ish words from this verse, I guess?

* * *

 **outtakes (Or, Hakuba Saguru Has Done Nothing To Deserve This, And Yet)**

* * *

It begins like this – Kuroba pops up beside his desk one afternoon, which is not in itself an unusual event these days. "Hey, Hakuba?"

"What," Saguru says flatly, completely failing to insert any form of questioning tone into the word whatsoever. He's in the middle of an actually decent mystery novel, for once, and he absolutely _detests_ getting interrupted midway through one of these. A fact he could've sworn Kuroba had noticed by now, actually.

Kuroba ignores his complete lack of enthusiasm, because _of course_ he does. Saguru doesn't even know why he bothers anymore. "How hot does air need to get before it ionises?"

"More than a hundred thousand degrees Kelvin, I believe." Saguru doesn't even bat an eyelash before answering. "Though I'm fairly certain you're capable of the calculations yourself."

He's half-expecting a sarcastic retort in answer to that one, but instead Kuroba merely makes a non-committal sound of agreement before vanishing again.

Saguru turns another page of his book, and very carefully does not wonder what _that_ was about.

.

(They get a substitute teacher for ability training exactly once.

Saguru is helping Aoko set up the waterproof targets for her own practice when the somewhat confused-looking teacher walks over. "Hakuba-kun? Komoe-sensei left a note saying that under no circumstances should I allow Kuroba-kun within a metre of you during practice. Why is that?"

"Well," Saguru answers diplomatically, because he's long since learned that the very concept of being within earshot has an entirely new meaning around an aerokinetic like Kuroba, "I'm working with open fire, you see. And Kuroba-kun is a master at disruption by air, if you get my drift."

The substitute glances at Kuroba – who is, at the moment, engaged in the relatively harmless exercise of hands-free juggling – before turning back to them. "I see. I'll keep an eye on him, then."

 _Don't bother,_ Saguru is almost tempted to tell her.

Which turns out to be applicable anyway, since Kuroba manages to create enough of an air current even at that distance – Saguru suspects something involving the air vents – that Saguru's eyebrow has developed a seemingly permanent twitch by the end of class.

It works out reasonably well in the end, though, when Saguru is rewarded with the extremely satisfying spectacle of Aoko very carefully and deliberately firing her last water jet at Kuroba instead, thoroughly drenching him from head to toe.

(Saguru helps to corroborate her story that she simply slipped on the wet floor and missed her target. It could've happened to anyone else, after all.)

Kuroba whines about them ganging up on him for the rest of the day. It's mildly annoying, but Saguru follows Aoko's lead and simply ignores him, and _that_ leads the magician to flop bonelessly onto Aoko's desk and look dolefully at her instead. "You like Hakuba better than me," he says with an exaggerated pout.

"Well, you _did_ start it first, Kaito." Saguru wonders if resistance to the antics of a certain magician thief runs in the Nakamori family, because Aoko doesn't even look bothered in the least. "Besides, that last jet was at least fifty times weaker than all the rest, so Aoko doesn't see any reason to complain. Unless you'd prefer Aoko not to hold back next time

Kuroba is still spluttering in indignation when Aoko turns to Saguru instead. "Speaking of which, Hakuba-kun, about that shape manipulation technique you were talking about earlier – ")

.

The night sky is particularly ominous tonight.

Or perhaps that's just Saguru's own steadily growing sense of foreboding. Though the latter is getting to be an increasingly familiar sentiment, these days.

( _Wonder why that is,_ he thinks, tone dry as ashes.)

A small fireball flares into existence, hovering steadily in front of Saguru, a familiar and welcome crackle of heat against the freezing winds on the roof.

To be more precise – the howling, almost gale-force, _and_ freezing winds, which should logically have rendered any form of glider flight impossible.

Saguru sighs, and unclips the standard-issue police radio from his belt, because he really couldn't justify putting it off any longer.

"Hakuba to all Task Force members. It appears that earlier eyewitness reports were unfortunately accurate, and I am forced to conclude that – " he squints upwards, to where a white figure is visibly moving unassisted across the moonlit sky, " – indeed, Kaitou Kid has learned to fly."

This elicits a long and detailed string of curses from Nakamori-keibu, followed by a last, half-desperate question. "You're sure, Hakuba-kun?"

"Positive visual identification, yes," Saguru confirms, and does not add: _by the way – just theoretically speaking, of course – is it aiding and abetting a criminal if I offer help to a classmate purely out of the desire to not see him go_ splat _on the ground?_

The inspector is issuing a string of new orders to various Task Force teams now, and Saguru listens absently, allowing himself to bask in the fire's warmth a while longer before he dispels it and steps away from the shelter of the roof access stairwell. He doesn't want to risk a fireball burning unchecked while he's distracted, after all, and he _does_ have a phantom thief to deal with.

One who is landing on the roof at that very moment in an excessively dramatic pose, because one of them has clearly been watching _far too many_ superhero movies, and it certainly isn't Saguru.

"Good evening, tantei-san!" Kaitou Kid says altogether too cheerfully, with a jaunty tip of the hat towards Saguru, who feels sparks jumping haphazardly from his fingertips despite himself.

"I am going to _murder_ you and hide the body where Aoko-kun won't find it," Saguru growls, and just about stops himself from sending death by hellfire when Kid merely laughs in response.

.

It ends like this – Kuroba appears silently beside his desk on yet another afternoon, and this time Saguru doesn't even _wait_ for him to start, nor does he bother looking up from the assignment he's working on. "What."

Kuroba has proven to possess an impeccable sense of the exact times at which Saguru hates to be disturbed the most. (A knowledge he grossly misuses, in Saguru's informed opinion.) "So, if I used a high-voltage power source to ionise the air, I wouldn't need to heat it up quite that much?"

"A sufficiently powerful capacitor should do... the trick..." Saguru trails off and sets down his pen sharply, because he's just realised what he's actually _saying_ , and that – "Kuroba-kun. Are you trying to create _plasma?"_

Kuroba only grins before running off, and Saguru spares one second to pinch the bridge of his nose and long wearily for a time when he didn't have to worry about _potential world annihilation_ as part of a normal school day.

Then he goes off in search of Aoko, because if this is his life now, at least he doesn't have to deal with it alone.

* * *

 **END**

* * *

 _...am I finally done with this verse now? am I?_ _ha ha. who even knows anymore because I certainly don't_ _look I just wanted to play some more in this verse okay hush_

 _all credit for the plasma idea goes to Accelerator from the Toaru aka Raildex light novel/manga/anime series – which comes highly recommended, and which I have shamelessly drawn on for this fic_

 _all credit for any associated errors goes to the fact that the author is an engineering student who does not possess ambitions of making plasma. but afaik it basically requires ionising some percentage of air, which in turn requires a crapton of energy that could come from heating up the molecules (since Kaito is probably also capable of manipulation at a microscopic level, as opposed to the bulk fluid motions he'd need to fly), or another source like electricity. not sure about the world-destroying part, but Kaito could probably find a way and Saguru would really rather err on the safe side with this one? yeah_


	3. buffer

Saguru goes to the roof.

It's the most reliable solution to the problem of 'where is Kuroba?', insofar as anything about the magician can _be_ reliably dependable. Aoko agrees, too, which is to say that she'd told Saguru that it was one of her top ten rules when it came to handling one Kuroba Kaito.

(He is… still unsure, to this day, how serious she had been about that. Saguru's own proclivity for rules is unusual, he knows that much, but then again Aoko _does_ have a tendency of defying everyone's expectations. She and Kuroba have that in common, among other things.)

At any rate, they'd reached a consensus: if you wanted to find Kuroba, you went up, and out.

(Saguru suspects that it's at least partly due to Kuroba's aerokinetic abilities – Aoko liked being in the water, and many of the elementals he'd met had been the same, though since Saguru lacks tendencies towards large-scale arson he can't exactly confirm it himself – and partly just because the magician had a general affinity for high places and other off-limit areas.

Though at least Kuroba _could_ catch himself and fly if he ever actually fell from any such areas, which was admittedly unlikely for him, and also more than could be said for most other people.)

Ekoda High is no skyscraper, of course – the main classroom building is only six storeys tall, but it's still high enough that a frigid wind whips past Saguru's face once he pushes open the roof access door.

Kuroba is easy to spot, for once, his school uniform constrasting starkly with the dull grey of the cement. He's sitting near the edge of the roof, legs dangling out in between the railings.

Saguru almost hesitates at this point, but Aoko's worried expression comes to mind (Kuroba had skipped _three classes_ in a row, which was unusual even by his standards) and he sighs before walking over.

The wind is loud enough that his footsteps are almost inaudible. Saguru has little doubt that Kuroba noticed him anyway, though the magician doesn't so much as turn around as he approaches. "Aoko sent you up here?"

"Aoko-kun is concerned, yes, but I made the decision mys–" Saguru cuts himself off mid-sentence, and would probably have said something impolite if he'd been the type to swear. "You're _shivering_ , Kuroba-kun."

"Really." Kuroba looks at his hands with a frown, then clenches them until they stop trembling. "I hadn't noticed."

 _Oh, for – Kuroba's being serious, isn't he,_ Saguru thinks despairingly, already unbuttoning and shrugging off his own uniform jacket, which he drapes over Kuroba's shoulders in a deft motion. "At least bring a heavier coat if you're going to brood up here, I'd credited you with more intelligence than this."

Kuroba doesn't move to pull the jacket any closer around himself, but he _does_ look over at Saguru, at least. "Aren't you co– oh, pyrokinetic, right."

Saguru nods as he sits down next to Kuroba, with his back to the railing. (He'd have been really disturbed if Kuroba hadn't figured that one out, honestly.)

They sit in silence for five and a half minutes – not an especially awkward silence, but certainly more unusual for Kuroba than himself – before the magician speaks up, apropos of nothing. "I guess I've been kind of an ass to you, Hakuba. Sorry."

Saguru blinks, completely taken aback. "…well, it's past lunch, but I suppose impossible things can't always happen on a schedule, can they?"

Kuroba actually _laughs_ at that one, which is slightly better than what Saguru had been aiming for, and further evidence (not that Saguru needed it) for the fact that his classmate is far more well-read and knowledgeable than he usually appears. "The impossible _is_ my specialty!" he quips with some of his customary cheer, though even Saguru can tell it's a little forced.

"That much is obvious," Saguru answers dryly. "Apology accepted, by the way, though I wasn't looking for one. Let's just say that I've had significantly less amiable encounters at my previous school, and leave it at that."

 _To put it mildly_ , he adds mentally. It'd never been anything overt, but then it never had to be, and the small things added up quickly – his half-Japanese heritage, his skills, even the apparent mismatch between his element and personality. (Even though extensive research had already demonstrated the lack of significant correlation between the two, but Holmes forbid anyone consult the literature before forming completely unfounded beliefs.)

Kuroba, expression now sober again, gives him a look that suggests he's more or less guessed what Saguru is thinking. Fortunately, he doesn't pursue it any further, though Saguru doesn't expect it when he changes the topic.

"My dad…" Kuroba trails off, and exhales, leaning forward against the rail. "You know what day it is?"

"I am aware of the date's significance, yes," Saguru answers cautiously – he'd read the case file and whatever articles he could get ahold of regarding Kuroba Toichi's death, though they had been ultimately uninformative beyond the basic facts. "For what it's worth, I am sorry for your loss, Kuroba-kun. All the evidence suggests that he was a great man."

"Yes, he was." Kuroba, when Saguru chances a look at him, is staring off into the distance. Saguru wonders what he sees. "Shortly before you transferred to our class… I discovered that his death was most probably _not_ an accident."

Saguru breathes in sharply, a hiss of surprise, but his mind is already piecing together the puzzle – his suspicions about Kuroba Toichi, the increasingly bold snipers at heists (which he _fully intends_ to confront Kid about when he gets the opportunity, just not today), the relatively few ways one could ensure a death by fire – and he doesn't like the answer that's taking shape. "Why didn't you go to the police, if you had evidence of foul play?"

"I didn't. Nothing they could act on, at least." Kuroba's voice is bitter. "But you can see why I took your abilities badly."

Saguru tries to imagine himself in the same position – suddenly confronted with the same ability he suspected was involved in the death of someone he cared deeply about – and can't quite suppress a shudder of his own, though he manages to keep his tone even when he answers. "A perfectly understandable response. And as I said, I wasn't bothered by your attitude, even if it wasn't quite for the usual reasons."

"Just thought you'd like to know, that's all," Kuroba says before lapsing back into silence, during which Saguru makes a mental note to look into the records over at Organised Crime – any pyrokinetic that powerful (allowing for the use of accelerants, of course, which lowered the required strength considerably) would probably have been noted down somewhere.

Saguru would know, after all.

He breaks the silence five minutes later, standing up and dusting his pants off. "Come on, we'd better head back to class before Aoko threatens to water jet us. Or worse."

Kuroba looks up at him, something searching in his gaze. "If I said I'd come down later… you wouldn't trust me, would you?"

Saguru gives the question honest thought, considering the probabilities, then shakes his head with some regret. "Not on this, no."

"Fair enough." Kuroba shrugs, handing the extra jacket back as he stands up, showing no signs of stiffness even though Saguru is certain that he's been essentially sitting stock still in the same spot for hours.

(Abilities aside, it was little wonder that Kaitou Kid ran circles around the Task Force, Saguru couldn't help but think, even with Kuroba near single-handedly planning all of the heists. Though if the Task Force made good on their whispered plans to hire Aoko when she graduated – assuming Nakamori-keibu didn't throw a fit first – then… Saguru has the sudden mental image of Kaitou Kid being chased with a mop by an irate inspector.)

At Saguru's badly stifled snicker, Kuroba turns around, walking backwards without even bothering to glance behind him. "What?"

"Nothing," Saguru answers smoothly. "Just imagining Aoko-kun chasing the Kaitou Kid while armed with mops and high-powered water jets."

Kuroba blanches briefly, then starts laughing as well, until he almost backs into the door without noticing.

Saguru lets that one pass uncommented, and Kuroba huffs in seeming annoyance before turning back to open the door.

For all that the cold never really gets to Saguru – he hadn't been misdirecting Kuroba earlier, his pyrokinetic abilities _did_ serve as a buffer against all but the most extreme of weather – he's still glad to leave the wind behind as he closes the access door behind them.

"You know, there's this kid from Beika that you should meet." Kuroba grins at him as they head down the stairs, looking considerably more like his usual self. "Electrokinetic, and a powerful one to boot."

Saguru flips through a mental list of people he knows from Beika, and stops short. "…you can't possibly mean Edogawa Conan. He's a little young to have fully manifested his powers, isn't he?"

"Oh, he has them, all right." Kaito's expression falters, presumably recalling some past incident. "Did you know that electrokinetics are apparently resistant to tasers?"

"I do now," Saguru answers with a raised eyebrow. "And how did _you_ find that out, then? Electrokinetics are rare enough that the research on them is rather sparse, as I recall."

Kuroba waves a hand airily, carefree grin already firmly back in place. "Oh, I just overheard some of the Task Force people talking about it. Kaitou Kid tried it at a heist, apparently, and the little detective gave him a earful on the dangers of using tasers on children."

…well, Saguru's definitely going to find the original witness statements from _that_ heist – clearly not one he'd been around for – and have a good bout of amusement at Kid's expense. (He wonders if this is some gesture of gratitude on Kuroba's part, but he'll take it anyway, whatever it is.) "Seems like we can add child endangerment to Kid's list of crimes, then? I'm sure Division One would be happy to help use with the paperwork."

The answer is rife with indignation. "Hey! Kid-sama would _never_ do anything to actually endanger a kid, okay – "

* * *

 **END**

* * *

 _(again, I don't know if I'm done with this verse – will keep it marked as complete since I don't have plans of actively updating it beyond individual ficlets like this one, so your choice to subscribe or not if you want to see more)_

 _in case it wasn't clear – the fact that they're all verbally dancing around is that it's the anniversary of Toichi's death (which Aoko also knows), and in this verse it seems distinctly possible that Snake got a pyrokinetic to do it, which genuinely doesn't bear thinking about, honestly_

 _(it's deliberately left open to interpretation, but I assume Snake probably isn't one himself, and as Saguru thinks here the pyrokinetic was possibly just involved in starting the fire, with the rest being dong via accelerants/damaged equipment/whatever nefarious setup have you)_


	4. outtakes, ii

_a very /very/ belated crosspost because i just realised that i forgot to add this chapter here, if anyone's even still following it. whoops? mea culpa._

 _this instalment brought to you by a prompt by swingingrobin on tumblr: "Aoko and Kaito have a power mock-battle. Aoko allows a lot of her water attacks to 'miss' Kaito but she's actually just getting the ground around him really wet. She then tricks him into accidentally freezing the ground. (water + air = ice ?) And guess who loses all of his grace on ice?"_

 _also, art happened! presumenothingDOTtumblrDOTcom/post/158536329810_

* * *

Saguru wonders, idly, how much Ekoda High budgets for building maintenance every year.

Well, whatever the number is, he's fairly certain it's at least doubled since they admitted one Kuroba Kaito and Nakamori Aoko to the school. If nothing else, the pair wrought merry hell on the ventilation and drainage systems on a regular basis, between pranks and spars and everything that fell in between.

He shakes his head, feeling vague sympathy for the school management, and refocuses on his notebook. Kuroba had suggested a _fire tornado_ , of all things, and Saguru is still trying to figure out if there's any merit to the idea beyond the magician's usual taste for the dramatic.

(It's just as well Kuroba isn't the pyrokinetic here, Saguru thinks with an involuntary shudder, since he'd probably be the kind to regularly breathe fire instead of air.)

Saguru jots down several ideas for testing, though doing it at school is out of the question - if he can figure out how to make a controllable tornado, though…

A stray arc of water flies towards Saguru as he turns a page of the notebook. It sizzles out in a sudden burst of flame.

(The water, of course. He'd never treat his books like that.)

"Sorry, Hakuba-kun!" Aoko calls out sheepishly.

"It's alright," Saguru answers absently, the dome-shaped shield around him already settling back into a barely visible blue flare.

The training hall is empty save for the three of them, as expected. (Saguru doesn't actually know of anyone else who would willingly stay within radius of Kaito and Aoko's spars, and it's virtually become common practice for everyone else in class 2-B to swap places with him when they're drawing lots for training matches in class.)

Saguru looks up at the sound of Kuroba's voice. "Where are you aiming, Ahoko, I'm over here!"

"Well, it's not Aoko's fault that even water wants to stay away from your face, Bakaito!" Aoko replies as she nimbly dodges another gust of wind – it barely ruffles her uniform, but the water jet ends up splashing harmlessly on the floor to join the shallow pool around Kuroba's feet, already two metres across and steadily growing.

(Having Kuroba remain mostly on the ground is one of the only rules he and Aoko have set for these spars. It's ostensibly to avoid any injuries since they aren't using any practice mats, but Saguru knows Aoko mostly insisted on it because she'd probably end up drenching a fair portion of the ceiling otherwise, which would be unpleasant all around.)

Aoko makes a sound of annoyance, and calls up a disc of water instead, which quickly flattens out into a thin sheet as she directs it forward with a gesture.

Kuroba is already on the move, though, with a distinct _whoosh_ of air being displaced as he sends an opposite wave to meet it, and –

Saguru can see the exact moment when Kuroba realises his error, a second too late to do anything, as the water freezes over into smooth ice.

Kuroba flails about in an uncharacteristic lack of coordination before promptly losing his footing to fall flat onto his back, and Aoko grins in triumph.

(…the expression is _disturbingly_ like Kid's, actually, but he isn't about to tell her that.)

Saguru stands up, pocketing his notebook, and walks briskly over.

The thin film of ice now covering the ground is almost completely even, except for where his own footprints have melted a line of shallow impressions, and the web of fine cracks now spreading out from Kuroba.

(Saguru observes the magician – who appears to be trying all at once to stand up, break the ice with air, and figure out what Aoko had done, with varying degrees of success – and wonders if it'd be evil of him to suggest ice to Nakamori-keibu at the next heist. Anything outdoors would be next to useless, of course, but in a confined area where air currents couldn't be manipulated quite so easily…)

"Very well executed, Aoko-kun," Saguru says as Aoko crosses the hall to join them, hands deftly undoing her hair from the bun she'd tied it into. (Long hair was a pain to deal with when wet, apparently, or so she'd told him.) "I'm impressed, you managed almost twice the original area you were practicing with earlier."

Aoko looks over at him, blushing faintly. "Really?"

"I didn't know you were even capable of _being_ impressed, Hakuba," Kuroba grumbles, before falling back onto the floor with an _oof_.

Saguru exchanges a grin with Aoko, and they speak almost simultaneously. "Now, be nice, Kaito – " " – after all, you _do_ realise which of us is most capable of melting this ice, right?"

Kuroba groans. "You know what, just forget it and – hey, wait, where are you guys going? Don't just leave me here – "

* * *

 **END**

* * *

 **MANDATORY NOTE:** _this is the last complete part of this verse – the following chapters are eternally-incomplete parts that I've written too much of to abandon entirely._

* * *

 _…so how did Aoko do it?_

 _…good question! bad science ahoy! after ¾ of an engineering degree and a considerable amount of googling, the best handwavey pseudo-explanation I can give you is either (a) temperature might have dropped as air expanded to fill the displaced volume, (b) a sharp jump in pressure from shockwaves caused a rise in freezing point, or my current favourite (c ) the previous answers were complete rubbish, and Hakuba Labs just happened to develop some chemical that can increase the freezing point of water. nothing says Aoko needs to use **pure** water, after all, ha!_

 _which, as I feel compelled to point out, is also nonsense since impurities always lower freezing points, but hey, 400 IQ amirite ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯_


	5. contingency, i (INCOMPLETE)

**NOTE: UNFINISHED WORK AHEAD, READ AT YOUR OWN** **RISK.** _This part posted purely for archival purposes; [...] marks truncated sections._

* * *

The fifth time Kaitou Kid gets shot at during a heist, Saguru goes home and incinerates a two-by-four-foot target, inch by inch by inch.

(The practice room in the Hakuba estate isn't even supposed to be open at this hour, but Saguru finds his usual setup waiting when he gets home anyway. It only serves to further confirm his current theory that Baaya has some latent telepathic abilities, but that's neither here nor there.

The point is, Saguru thinks almost viciously as he hurls twin streaks of fire at the next two points indicated by lasers, selected by a randomisation algorithm he'd written himself – he'd long since learned to decouple the physical gesture from his powers, of course, but tonight there's an oddly visceral satisfaction to the movement, to seeing another two points scorched with pinpoint accuracy –

– the point _is_ , Kuroba Kaito is a _bloody moron_ with the self-preservation of a _suicidal lemming_ , and hell if Saguru's going to stand by and let him do just that.)

* * *

The next day, Saguru throws a wadded ball of paper at Kuroba during lunch break.

The magician had turned up for class this morning looking cheerfully unperturbed as usual. That much was expected, but even then Saguru had felt an annoyed flare of heat that he'd forcibly tamped down by ascertaining that Kuroba showed no visible stiffness of movement that could indicate a serious injury.

Little wonder that Nakamori-keibu has issues with hypertension, Saguru thinks, as he watches the crumpled ball fly in a perfect arc to hit its target unerringly – Kuroba had a tendency to be endlessly irritating in either persona.

"Ow!" Kuroba whirls around immediately from where he'd been talking to Aoko, rubbing at the back of his head – for show, obviously, since Saguru knows for a fact that his pain tolerance is significantly higher than that, but Kuroba is nothing if not a consummate showman all the way through. "What's your problem, Hakuba?"

Saguru has the rare privilege of seeing both Kuroba and Aoko at a genuine and complete loss, for once. "Well," he answers blandly, "I figured you could work on a shield to deflect projectiles, Kuroba-kun, now that you've gained sufficient control over air currents to fly."

Aoko's expression turns distant for a moment, then morphs into understanding. "That – you'd have to accelerate the air quite a bit to compensate for the low density, but that might actually work, Kaito! Besides, Aoko knows that you've been bored out of your mind in training since you mastered the flying thing."

"Of course," Saguru answers, though he's speaking mostly to Kuroba – whose expression is one of comprehension, as well, if for a completely different reason. "I wouldn't have suggested such a thing without having done the preliminary calculations myself. So, are you up to it, Kuroba-kun?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Hakuba, of course I – _wargh!_ " Kuroba dodges with an ungraceful yelp as Saguru lobs another paper ball at him, but – there. It could've been an unlikely trick of the light, but Saguru is fairly certain that the ball's path had deflected.

Only infinitesimally, of course. He'd been expecting that.

Saguru doesn't particularly mind. This exercise is turning out to be fairly therapeutic for him, if nothing else.

(Aoko joins in soon enough. Kuroba doesn't look best pleased with either development, but given the number of pranks Saguru has been on the receiving end of in the past week alone, this is entirely fair payback as far as he's concerned.)

* * *

Kuroba finds him on the roof after school, as Saguru had been expecting him to do. "So, what was that really all about?"

"Do you know the momentum of a rifle bullet, Kuroba-kun?" Saguru asks, and it's not a rhetorical question but he doesn't wait for a response anyway, because feigned ignorance isn't really a thing he wants to hear right now. "The average bullet weighs 10 to 20 grams, and travels at 900 to 1000 metres a second."

He rattles off the numbers quickly, but he can already see Kuroba doing the calculations in his head. "That's..."

"Higher than you could realistically hope to counter, by several orders of magnitude," Saguru interrupts, because he's always been a stickler for precision but this is one case where the exact numbers are of little consequence. "Unless you've developed the ability for near-instantaneous supersonic acceleration without me noticing."

Which is a possibility, if a _highly_ unlikely one – even for someone of Kuroba's proficiency, breaking the sound barrier isn't exactly something that can be done on a whim, but Saguru has learned not to dismiss the improbable when it comes to Kuroba.

His deduction is borne out, though, in the sharp shake of the magician's head.

"Detection and deflection, on the other hand..." Saguru continues, watching Kuroba out the corner of his eye, and catches the gleam of realisation there.

[...]

Kuroba is a annoying fast learner. By the end of the week, he's already had a successful deflection rate of 80%, though it does vary a fair bit depending on how much warning Kuroba gets.

(Which, as Saguru helpfully points out the Aoko – all the more reason for testing this newfound skill when Kuroba least expects it. Of course.)


	6. contingency, ii (INCOMPLETE)

**NOTE: UNFINISHED WORK AHEAD, READ AT YOUR OWN** **RISK.** _This part posted purely for archival purposes; [...] marks truncated sections._

* * *

The problem with pyrokinesis, Saguru thinks, is the dearth of ways to disable rather than kill, or at least seriously injure.

Mass destruction? Easy. Saguru has literally lost count of the number of training dummies he's accidentally charred beyond all recognition, but he knows it's in the high hundreds.

Saguru eyes the multitude of trenchcoat-clad figures on the rooftop – impressive, that Kid of all people has warranted such levels of firepower, but also _damn_ it – and rates his chances of being able to (a) take a sufficient fraction of them out at once while (b) leaving the building relatively unscathed and (c) enough of them alive to interrogate and preferably arrest the living daylights out of, since Kid himself is obviously not a viable witness and Saguru's not even supposed to be here himself.

"I don't suppose you have any brilliant plans, Kid?"

Kid laughs airily, though it's betrayed by tension in the set of his shoulders. "Don't be ridiculous, tantei-san, _all_ my plans are brilliant."

[...]

In front of him, Kid's posture shifts slightly, and Saguru catches a murmur just loud enough for him to hear. "Take out your earpiece."

Saguru does, trying to make the motion as surreptitious as possible, and is about to ask why when all hell breaks loose.

Or, to put it more precisely, a dark shape appears several feet above them on the roof, followed by several bursts of sound – _gunshots_ , Saguru realises, and in the light of muzzle flashes the shape above resolves into two vaguely familiar figures –

Saguru has just had enough time to register the visibly crackling aura surrounding Edogawa Conan before it snaps out in a wide arc of electricity, and the sudden screech of radio feedback fills the air.

It's difficult be certain in the dim light, but Saguru thinks he sees several of Snake's men loosen their grip in surprise – and Kid, never one to miss an opportunity, sends a strong gust that knocks the guns right out of their hands even as Hattori Heiji disappears again, with Edogawa in tow.

The whole sequence takes no more than eight seconds. Hattori teleports in beside them as the last of the bullets that hadn't gone completely wide at the duo's appearance clatter to the ground, slowed by the combination of electromagnetic fields and air currents.

(Saguru has heard of Kudo Shinichi's electrokinetic abilities, of course – the Tokyo police is rife with tales of it, from the mundane to the more farfetched rumours of Kudo being able to stop a bullet cold. What Edogawa has demonstrated is a bare fraction of that power, but even Saguru himself would've been hard pressed to pull off such a wide-area effect at that age.

Kuroba hadn't been exaggerating matters, clearly.)

Saguru snaps himself out of his thoughts just in time to catch the tail end of a disgruntled mutter from Edogawa. " – could've just taken them out directly, you know."

"You're not supposed to be doing that anyway," Hattori answers chidingly as he sets the elementary schooler down behind himself. "Or your Neechan will have my head and ya know it."

Saguru takes in the sight of Edogawa glaring almost mulishly at the Osakan detective and asks the first of many questions on his mind. "Hattori-kun? What are you _doing_ here?"

"I just _happened to be in town_ , of course. What d'ya think?" Hattori snaps at him.

Saguru considers the probability of Hattori being capable of teleportation jumps between cities on short notice, and comes to the conclusion that –

"I didn't say that I had _no_ contingency plans, tantei-san, I just needed them to believe that," Kid says with distinct amusement in his voice, and continues before Saguru can answer. (Or, more possibly, strangle his head clean off.) "We'll make sure to include you in any secret plans next time, don't worry. Give us… three minutes' head start, tantei-han?"

"One minute will do, Kid," Edogawa cuts in, tone still vaguely irritated. "Stop treating me like a child."

Kid grins and nods. "Two minutes it is, then. See you later, detectives!"

Then he picks Edogawa up much like Hattori did – earning a squawk of protest in return – before launching himself off the roof with a jaunty tip of his hat.

And Saguru feels the breath stop in his throat, because he _knows_ Kuroba's limits and they _do not extend_ to keeping himself airborne while carrying the extra weight of both Kid's gear and a child –

His frantic look over the edge, though, shows Kid braking his freefall with the help of truly ridiculously amounts of electricity arcing out towards building's frame, which is… really _something_ , though Saguru doesn't get to figure out what before the sharp report of gunfire shows that Snake's goons are up at it again.

[...]

Saguru eyes the Osakan with considerable trepidation – little wonder that no one had clued him in beforehand, if his escape plan is supposed to be _Hattori Heiji_. "If you splinch us, Hattori-kun, I will not hesitate to reduce you to ashes."

The other detective merely quirks an amused eyebrow at him. "What d'ya think this is, Harry Potter?"

* * *

"Hattori-kun, do you ever feel like – "

" – our respective powers are some cosmic joke?" Hattori snorts. "Hell, do I ever. Though that's gotta mean the universe has the same crap sense of humour as you then."

[...]

"So what's going on, Hakuba?"

Saguru almost stops mid-movement out of sheer disbelief. "Did you really come here without knowing even that much?"

"Yeah?" Hattori's reply sounds almost quizzical. "Ku – I mean, Conan-kun told me that he needed help over here, so I teleported part of the way and got an express train ticket for the rest, since last-minute bullet train tickets are a real pain anyway. Briefing didn't go much beyond 'someone is taking potshots at Kaitou Kid', but I'm assumin' you have at least some idea as to why."

"I'm impressed that you have any faith at all in my abilities," Saguru says dryly, pinching the bridge of his nose. "How much do you know about Kaitou Kid?"

"Only that he's got too much time on his hands, and judging from that display earlier he's most likely an aerokinetic." Hattori shrugs. "I work homicide, Hakuba, not thefts."

Saguru is briefly tempted to argue that he _does_ in fact know a fair bit about the set of currently wanted serial killers despite the reverse being true of himself, but drops the thought in favour of expediency.


End file.
